Meet Liette
My journey to metalsmithing started as a child, always creating something with my hands--making ubiquitous friendship bracelets, designing doll houses out of shoe boxes, painting and drawing constantly. After graduating college and feeling somewhat adrift, I decided to take a jewelry-making class at a local community college. What began as a lark became an all-consuming obsession. The process of re-shaping metal with fire and tools--techniques used since antiquity--struck a chord within me. I bought every book I could find on metalsmithing and jewelry-making, invested in tools and supplies, and spent countless hours playing with torch and metal, hammer and saw.
Flying Crow Metalworks wasn't born until years later, when I moved to Colorado. Crows connect me to my mountain roots, my childhood, and my love of the outdoors. They are a common bird found everywhere, yet given a mystical status in every culture. I've loved them since I was young and incorporated them as symbols in my early work. I wanted this connection to nature to be reflected in my own business.
As my work has evolved, the use of unique and unusual stones has become central to the jewelry I design. I create one-of-a-kind and small batch jewelry inspired by hand-selected stones and the natural world. Each stone is connected to the place it was formed, shaped by heat and pressure, and influenced by an amalgam of minerals injected in just the right amount at just the right time to paint patterns, textures and colors into a masterpiece.
I grew up in a small mountain town in Arizona, and spent years exploring the rugged beauty of my home state. I moved to Tucson for college and found inspiration in the stark contrast of desert landscapes and sweeping mountain views. In college I spent a year studying in Mexico and traveled widely--I've probably seen more of that country than I have of my own. But I feel most at home in the Sonoran desert. I met a guy, fell in love, and moved to Colorado, where my kids were born. Life brought us back to Tucson, where I've lived--off and on--for almost 25 years. I’ve been in love with the open spaces of the Southwest my whole life.